Arthur Honegger - Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher (Marc Soustrot)

Information

Composer: Arthur Honegger

• Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher

Marion Cotillard; Xavier Gallais; Yann Beuron; Maria Hinojosa; Marta Almajano; Aude Extrémo; Anna Moreno-Lasalle; Eric Martin-Bonnet; Carles Romero Vidal; Pep Planas

Lieder Càmera Choir; Madrigal Choir; Vivaldi-Petits Cantors de Catalunya Choir
Barcelona Symphony Orchestra
Marc Soustrot, conductor

Date: 2015
Label: Alpha Classics
https://outhere-music.com/en/albums/jeanne-d-arc-au-bucher-alpha-709

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Review

The first collaboration between Arthur Honegger and Paul Claudel, Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher, dates from 1938, though it only acquired definitive form in 1944 when composer and writer, conscious of Jeanne’s status as an icon of wartime resistance, added the haunting prologue that equates occupied France with the primal chaos that preceded the Creation. Immensely powerful, it remains a difficult piece to get right in performance. The dramaturgy is rooted in Claudelian ideas of total theatre, which look back to Wagnerian concepts of Gesamtkunstwerk and forwards to late-20th-century multimedia experimentation, and the non-linear, symbolist narrative can seem fragmentary if not carefully handled. Jeanne and Frère Dominique, the spiritual comforter who prepares her for martyrdom, are played by actors: as Jacques Bonnaure’s booklet-notes remind us, the equal weight given to speech and song has antecedents in opéra comique.

Though intended for the theatre, we encounter it more frequently in the concert hall, and this new recording, issued simultaneously on CD and DVD, derives from a 2012 performance at Barcelona’s Sala Pau Casals. The acting is tremendous, and indeed Marion Cotillard’s Jeanne and Xavier Gallais’s Dominique are probably as good as it gets. Cotillard marvellously captures Jeanne’s innocence, toughness and terrifying doubts; Gallais is compassionate, tender, and at times tellingly fierce as he leads her towards her God. The impact is immeasurably heightened on DVD by our being able to see both the sorrowing beauty of Gallais’s face and the extraordinary way Cotillard’s eyes let us know exactly what is going on in Jeanne’s mind and soul in moments of silent stillness.

Musically, however, things are more equivocal. Conductor Marc Soustrot pitches the score somewhere between Seiji Ozawa’s clear-minded urgency and Serge Baudo’s grander, more emotive reading. The big set pieces – the bestiary court with its Art Deco flippancy, the mock-Baroque political card game – register wonderfully well, the orchestral playing is handsomely detailed and the choral singing sharply focused.

The soloists are problematic, though. Away from tenor Yann Beuron and twinkly-eyed bass Eric Martin-Bonnet (ideally you need to watch him, too), there’s too much unsteadiness, and the curdled sounds produced by the celestial trio awaiting Jeanne’s entry into Paradise don’t exactly suggest sanctity. The DVD is essential viewing; but if you prefer audio alone, then Baudo and Ozawa offer greater musical consistency. The difficulty in obtaining the DVD of Roberto Rossellini’s full-on 1954 film of the work, with Ingrid Bergman as Jeanne, is still, meanwhile, to be regretted.

-- Tim Ashley, Gramophone

More reviews:
MusicWeb International  RECORDING OF THE MONTH
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jun/03/honegger-jeanne-darc-au-bucher-cd-review-superbly-vivid-choral-singing
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/classicalcdreviews/11667797/Honegger-Jeanne-dArc-au-bucher-review-a-vivid-theatrical-experience.html
http://www.operatoday.com/content/2015/09/honegger_jeanne.php
https://www.operanews.com/Opera_News_Magazine/2015/12/Recordings/Honegger__Jeanne_d%E2%80%99Arc_au_B%C3%BBcher.html
https://www.allmusic.com/album/arthur-honegger-jeanne-darc-au-b%C3%BBcher-mw0002843244
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Honegger-Jeanne-Darc-Au-Bucher/dp/B00TA2DL2I

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Arthur Honegger (10 March 1892 – 27 November 1955) was a Swiss composer, who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. He was a member of Les Six, but his style is weightier and more solemn than that of his colleagues. His most frequently performed work is probably the orchestral work Pacific 231, which was inspired by the sound of a steam locomotive. The principal elements of Honegger's style are: Bachian counterpoint, driving rhythms, melodic amplitude, highly coloristic harmonies, an impressionistic use of orchestral sonorities, and a concern for formal architecture.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Honegger

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Marc Soustrot (born 15 April 1949 in Lyon) is a French classical conductor. Soustrot studied at the Conservatoire de Lyon and the Conservatoire de Paris. He was the music director of the Orchestre national des Pays de la Loire from 1976 to 1994, and from 1995 to 2003 GMD of the Beethoven Orchester Bonn which plays in both opera and concert. He has worked at major opera houses in Europe and made several recordings, such as Leonore, Beethoven's first version of Fidelio, the piano concertos and symphonies by Camille Saint-Saëns, Honegger's Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher, and Penderecki's St Luke Passion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Soustrot

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